Wednesday, February 10, 2010

read / re-read


L - Canon / T - film sp

I do like to read but I don't always pick out books that keep my attention. Lucky for me I have a nice library right in my office complex and can check out the latest releases and just swap them out if they don't pull me right in - some books just don't. Both of these books sounded interesting - I had just read an excerpt from them on npr.org so I checked them out today and will see if one grabs me.
I don't re-read books very often but I have a few that I enjoyed enough to re-read. Taylor on the other hand re-reads often. In fact she told me she had recently re-read "The Road" and is now re-reading "The Bell Jar". What about you? Is there a book you enjoy over and over again? / i'm re-reading the bell jar by slyvia plath.
"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." – chapter seven

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really have enjoyed the Louise Erdrich I've read in the past. I wish I had a library so close. I'm not sure I would get much work done though.

It's funny to see the rose covered boxes on the floor behind Taylor's head. What a journey those boxes have had and now continue to have with Taylor.

robin-bird said...

i'm liking the new look of your blog... very clean, simple and i like that there is more than one post to see on the page at a time :) books...i have had books i have read over and over. When i was very young it read The Lord of The Rings three times. Now i can't imagine reading it even once through. I listen to the Harry Potter series repeatedly while in my car. I have come to love having books read out loud. The book you have there on the bottom of your stack.... Her Fearful Symmetry...i have not yet read but not that i have seen it i will put it on my list of To Be Read books. (i get a lot of my book ideas fro Relyn:) I loved, loved The Time Travelers Wife. i listened to it being read and it just made me cry too hard so i had to go back to re-reading it rather than listening. Do you also listen?

i so appreciated the excerpt you included here from The Bell Jar Taylor. I tend to think of Sylvia Plath as much too dark for me to want to understand her but this quote...i can so relate to. thanks.
xo

S. Etole said...

makes me want to find a good book and do some winter reading ... the excerpt was quite telling

Jewels said...

I recently re-read "Left to Tell" by Imaculee Ilibagiza because I recommended it to my book club. It was just as good the second time!

d smith kaich jones said...

I re-read all the time. Every summer it's time to read The Far Paviions. I re-read Chocolat, Under the Tuscan Sun, Wind, Sand & Stars, West with the Night, Out of Africa, children's books, A Short History of a Small Place, The Milagro Beanfield War. Once is never ever enough for a good book. Never. I could go on & on. LOL! And ditto Robin re: the Plath excerpt. Gorgeous and true.

xo
Debi

ELK said...

great pairing here you two...i am not a big reader...i read / sing childrens books each day though "Miss Mary Mack" & "Corduroy" are two favorites

Relyn Lawson said...

Oh, I reread nearly as much as I "new read". I read The Hiding Place at least once a year. Every January and February finds me curled up with Elizabeth Berg's older books. I read Enchanted April every April and A Christmas Carol every December. I also reread Isabel's Daughter and The Inn at Lake Devine fairly often - probably about once every year and a half. I read Boy's Life most summers. And I listen to Hattie Big Sky again and again and again.

footnote

The photos on the left are taken by me, Leslye, the mother. The photos on the right are taken by my daughter, Taylor – unless otherwise noted. Comments are always welcome. thanks
If you care to visit, I, Leslye, have another blog - AutumnSun where I ramble around different paths and pleasures of my own.